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Youtube’s Latest Stars

Have you heard of LisaNova? She was a popular youtuber who was “discovered” and now has been offered a TV contract on MADTV! From Mediaweek, we get this:

Back in June, 26-year-old Lisa Donovan, in search of an outlet for her filmmaking ambitions, posted a self-made video on YouTube under the name Lisa Nova. Now, roughly seven months later, Donovan is a cast member of the Fox late night sketch series Mad TV.

That’s a meteoric rise for a comic talent who had never done stand-up before, and was really just hoping to make a movie someday. But Donovan’s success exemplifies just how much, and how fast things have changed in the comedy business.

Without YouTube, “none of this would have happened—no possible way,” says Donovan, who had been working at a production company when a colleague suggested that she try posting a clip on the site. She produced a couple of shorts, including one that mocked a Burger King campaign featuring P. Diddy, which YouTube posted on its home page. “YouTube featured me, and after that, I had access to the world,” she says. “It really changed my life.”

By September, Donovan was building a following with her clips, some of which featured original characters. Soon, a casting director for Mad TV was calling her in for an audition. Her first appearance on the show will be in February. In the meantime, Donovan says she plans to produce a new video for YouTube chronicling her career change.

Here’s her “Introducing LisaNova” video:

and in the most up to date news, one of this week’s top 20 channels is this Korean schoolgirl flautist:

What I am really liking about this channel is that – so far – most of the comments are supportive. Since I read this comment by Jane McGonical:

Each lonelygirl has roughly 1000-4000 comments, and the level of hate, mean-spiritendess, crudeness and often downright misogeny of the majority of them is impossible to ignore. I want to be very careful that we don’t fetishize the participation aspects of this experience that was had by a very few who may have intelligently, passionately and seriously investigated and responded to the texts and the media objects, with the mainstream experience of and participation in this project.

I have been studying the comments on various youtube channels a lot more carefully. The Korean schoolgirl still gets sexual and racist comments I think, but none I have seen so far are mean spirited. I’ll be tracking them a bit closer now to see how it pans out.